The Purge – Noah and the Ark

I started to take the easy way out with this text and talk about salvation and rainbows….the warm and fuzzy message we all know and love. God saved the people and the animals – 2 by 2 – and the dove brought back a fig leaf and they all went on to live happily ever after.

Or I could have talked about the immense size and proportions of the Ark, how God designed it perfectly to save and deliver its most precious cargo of righteous people and animals. We could have looked at its dimensions, capabilities and where it finally came to rest.

We could learn of the scientific explorations and the millions upon millions of dollars that have been spent trying to find the Ark.

But this is not the true heart of this story.

Yes, God did deliver and save all of humanity and critterdom with a

boat He designed and asked Noah to build.

And the Ark? A vessel. A tool. Made of wood and pitch by human hands. There is nothing magic about the Ark or its rotted framework.

The search of the Ark has wasted time, strength and money and has become a FALSE GOD to many who are obsessed with its location.

The truth is much darker. The message for us much harder to grasp.

Much like the real Grimm’s Fairy tales were not the ones read to us when we were little.

This is a story about THE PURGE

God killed every living person on the face of the earth except the few on the boat.

o Some estimate this number at around 10 BILLION people (they lived much longer then)

o Another group think there may have been a few million

o Some say the number would have been around 3 BILLION

The reality is that WE DO NOT KNOW this number

But any way you slice figure it – THIS WAS A HERD OF PEOPLE

Why? The people were living unrighteous lives

o They lived for themselves

o They lived for their pleasure

Why Noah? He was the most righteous one alive

o He must have shared his faith with his family

It is important that parents take the Spiritual Formation of their family seriously

What about everyone else?

o Dead.

o The purge was complete

Everyone not on the boat, well – missed the boat

Will this happen again?

o No. Well, not by flood anyway

o But there will come a time of THE PURGE

One day God will once again set his people apart as he brings judgment onto the world